Insurance hiked? Supreme Court blamed

By Jeanny HopperPublished: Saturday, April 24th, 2010

For the victims of accidents that resulted in paralysis or brain damage or other injuries, the drivers of Michigan will have to pay $20 dollars more for their care. In this case, it’s the Supreme Court to blame and not the usual bad stock or medicine costs.

Last month, two men who suffered brain damage and who required a nurse at all times got full reimbursement of insurance by the Michigan catastrophic claims association as ordered by the court.

The association that contained insurers who did no wrong, that was created in the 1978 had a goal which was to provide expenses for medicines and rehabilitation for those people who were injured due to crash accidents. This association compensates when the claim goes beyond 460,000 dollars to the insurers.

The charges spent for nursing per hour for Robert and Daniel was high said MCCA. They said that the companies couldn’t pass along charges that were unreasonable. The charges are being funded by the bills of the drivers’ insurance.

MCCA was made to pay the expenses as an order from the court as the insurers had already approved of it. This decision made MCCA demand for $64.5 million for the expenses in this year and $629 million had to be kept as reserves. This decision also hints as an example of what had happened in the Supreme Court election last November. Clifford Taylor, a republican was unseated by Diane Hathway, a democrat. Taylor took in favor of MCCA, 2 days before leaving the bench. When Diane took over, the case was ruled the other way.

The payments are quoted excessive by the commissioner of state insurance. And just because MCCA does not like it, the deal to compensate cannot be avoided.

Many of the insurers try and avoid such situations but there are differential opinions relating to how the decision could affect the premiums of motorists.

Page graves, an attorney of the Traverse City auto insurance company states that the suggestion given to the companies is like a bullet in their heads as the incentives they receive are too less to make sensible negotiations got the motorists who are badly injured, even after it is known that MCCA gets the bills.

Erhardt says its going to be creepy as the ruling in costs would eventually increase with time as the insurers would make sure the charges offered are low and also in less time.

Soon after it was announced that the court would reconsider, MCCA’s announcement of high assessment was heard. It was asked as to whether preventive measures were taken for unreasonable claims in the nearing future.

The court concluded with a justification that said that the increase had to be something consumers could review.